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2004-09-13 China-Japan-Koreas
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Few democrat gains in HK exit polls
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| Relax, citizens, they're talking about real democrats here. |
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong pro-democracy candidates, stung by a sex scandal, have made limited gains against the Beijing camp in legislative polls as voters wary of irking their communist rulers chose stability, results showed today. The election for the 60-seat Legislative Council on Sunday had been portrayed by democrats as a virtual referendum on gaining the right to votes for all, but the sex scandal, Beijing's carrot-and-stick policies and a complicated voting system favoured pro-Beijing politicians.
The polls were marred by a delay of more than eight hours before results for a single seat were announced and when some polling stations ran out of ballot boxes. That prompted angry demands from democratic candidates for an explanation and a partial recount.
In a major blow for pro-democracy forces, their candidates managed to win just 18 directly elected seats, little changed from 17 in the last election and well below expectations despite a record 55.6 percent voter turnout. Wary not to anger China's communist rulers, voters ensured a better-than-expected showing for the pro-Beijing camp, which took 12 of the 30 directly elected seats, up from just seven in the 2000 poll, the preliminary official results showed. Results for the other 30 seats, elected by small limited professional groups such as lawyers and doctors, had yet to be released but have traditionally been dominated by the China camp. "The message we got from voters in the past few weeks is that many want ... a stable, harmonious environment so that their cousins from the north don't squash them like bugs," said Tsang Yok-hing, former chairman of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB).
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In the most extensive exercise in democracy in China, democrats had hoped to ride a groundswell of support after hundreds of thousands marched on July 1 against Beijing's April decision not to allow universal suffrage for several years. The council has been dominated by pro-Beijing members since 1997, when the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule. Beijing fears any upset of that arrangement would dilute its control over the city and allow pro-democracy opponents to take steps towards real democracy paralyse legislation, political analysts say.
The complicated proportional representation system installed by the Beijing-backed local government could mean democrats may take a higher percentage of the vote than the number of seats indicates. In the last chamber, the democracy camp held 22 seats and the pro-Beijing group 34. The rest were held by independents.
Support for the democrats began to sag after a sex scandal in which Democratic Party member Ho Wai-to was arrested in southern China last month and detained for six months for hiring a prostitute. Ho did not win a seat. Some members of the Democratic Party have said China was using a smear campaign to reduce its chances. "The scandals hurt us a lot, it was almost impossible to bring us back," said Fred Li, who won in Ho's constituency.
China's policy of offering economic incentives to Hong Kong constituted a more important factor for many of the 7 million people in the Asian financial hub, analysts said.
Close results could create a highly polarised legislature, but the inability of the democrats to make large gains would be good news for Beijing-chosen Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa in ensuring he can pretty much do as he pleases pass legislation.
A win by the maverick Marxist "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung, who for years has taken every opportunity to heckle Tung outside the chamber, could enliven proceedings. "I'll demonstrate my electorate's dissatisfaction towards this minority-chosen government by protesting in the council in my special way," Leung said, adding he was stunned to win a seat.
Key leaders won, including democrat Lee who had been expected to lose for the first time in 18 years. Another was James Tien, whose pro-government Liberal Party won the first two directly elected seats in its history. Tien, who has leadership ambitions, could hold the balance of power in the chamber. "I'm extremely excited," he said. 
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Posted by Steve White 2004-09-13 12:00:00 AM||
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